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ATLANTA — Norfolk Southern President Alan Shaw spent his first two days as CEO visiting railroaders across the system and vowing to restore service to normal levels. On Sunday, when he added chief executive to his title as president, Shaw headed to DeButts Yard in Chattanooga, Tenn., where he spent time in the main tower, […]
Amid lot of talk, just what is Precision Scheduled Railroading? It began with a simple lesson. In the late 1960s E. Hunter Harrison was working in the tower in Frisco’s Tennessee Yard in Memphis when Bill Thompson, the railroad’s operations chief, dropped by. Thompson pointed to the yard tracks, chocked full of freight cars, and […]
Scale: HO (1:87.1) Price: $239.99 (direct current with 21-pin NEM connector), $339.99 (with dual-mode SoundTraxx Tsunami2 sound decoder) Era: Early 2000s to present (varies depending on paint scheme) Manufacturer: Athearn Trains, 2904 Research Rd., Champaign, IL 61822, 800-338-4639, athearn.com General Electric ES44DC diesel locomotive features: See-through dynamic brake intakes Illuminated ditch lights Tinted cab windows GPS […]
Conrail locomotives: Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history, heritage, and style of Conrail all through April 2022. Enjoy this photo gallery of Conrail locomotives selected from the archives of Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. Conrail was formed in 1976 with the consolidation of several bankrupt Northeastern railroads: Penn Central, Central of New Jersey, […]
Modeling freight car loads: Kalmbach Media will be releasing Keith Kohlmann’s new book Model Realistic Freight Car Loads at the end of June. The 112-page book will feature a variety of loads, including farm machinery, heavy equipment, steel and metal products, assorted vehicles, forest products, and building materials. Seeing the announcement for the book on […]
Let’s set aside the railroad industry’s current bout of temporary service problems and discuss something more important. Class I railroads’ local service — which ranges from OK to downright embarrassing — for years has been where the rubber meets the road. Shippers divert rail shipments to trucks when a local regularly fails to show up, […]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Russia’s self-inflicted economic recession resulting from the Ukraine war will likely undo more than a decade’s worth of economic progress, as other countries end dealings with the Russians. For the U.S., this is an opportunity to increase exports, bolstering its relevance as a swing supplier. Coal and grains in particular are commodities […]
WASHINGTON — A Norfolk Southern conductor killed in a February 2019 accident in Baltimore was riding on the side of a car in a close-clearance area — contrary to rules prohibiting such an action — when he was pinned between his train and a car on an adjacent track, according to a National Transportation Safety […]
Classic Trains editors are celebrating the history and heritage of Conrail all through April 2022. Please enjoy this photo gallery of Conrail freight trains selected from the archives of Kalmbach Media’s David P. Morgan Library. Conrail served a variety of customers across the railroad’s territory stretching from St. Louis and Chicago east to Philadelphia, New […]
WASHINGTON — Utilities are worried that the slowdown in coal deliveries could threaten U.S. electricity supply and destabilize the power grid. Chemical producers say erratic rail service has forced them to curtail production of essentials like chlorine used to treat public drinking water systems and the plastics used in medical products. And one of the nation’s […]
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs has awarded a grant toward a $1.9 million project for a warehouse and other improvements at Watco-served Port Birmingham. The Birmingham-Jefferson County Port Authority is contributing $1.1 million toward project, which includes a 25,000-square-foot warehouse and improvements to attract other commodities requiring indoor storage. […]
WASHINGTON — There were more questions than answers on Tuesday as federal regulators sought ways to remedy railroad service problems that defy a quick fix because they are rooted in a shortage of train crews. Shippers told the Surface Transportation Board that rail service has deteriorated, with delays mounting as transit times have in some […]
